Friday, April 12, marked a pair of arts anniversaries — the 35th anniversary of the Lubbock Arts Festival and Elizabeth Regner’s 10th year in the position of executive director of the Lubbock Arts Alliance, the organization responsible for keeping this festival alive and growing.

That is no small feat when one considers that one of Regner’s earlier ideas was to dump 35 tons of sand onto the floor of the Lubbock Memorial Civic Center exhibit hall, and bring in a group called Team Sandtastic to sculpt a picnic scene during the course of the festival.

This year’s arts festival continues from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. Saturday, April 13, and from noon to 5 p.m. Sunday, April 14, throughout the Lubbock Memorial Civic Center, 1501 Mac Davis Lane.

“If there is one thing I have learned over the past 10 years,” commented Regner, “it is this: “If you can imagine it, there is an artist somewhere out there already making it.”

And Regner has quite the imagination.

Baron Batch

For example, she did not hesitate in inviting professional football player Baron Batch to be this year’s featured artist after seeing his artwork.

“I don’t want to just paint pretty flowers,” Batch said. “There’s thought and meaning in all of my paintings. There’s a story being told behind the paint. ... A lot of what I paint represents different time periods of my life.”

Each year’s festival of course includes a juried fine art exhibit, an exhibit hall filled to the brim with touring craftsmen and artists, a featured artist and an area filled with Kid Stops — easily determined by the stop signs in the midst of pedestrian traffic.

In addition, a committee comes up with something even more unique.

Mind you, board members quickly declined a suggestion to feature art made from chewed bubble gum.

“No, it was not my idea,” said Regner, “although I admit I was impressed by the life-sized alligator made out of (chewed) gum.”

Five unique artists

Still, consider just the past five years of specialty exhibits at the arts festival:

■ 2009: Regner hired Harrod Blank to arrive with one or more of his Art Cars, actual automobiles transformed into mobile works of art.

■ 2010: The featured artist was Nathan Sawaya, whose works of art were made from Legos children’s building blocks.

■ 2011: Herb Williams made incredible art works using Crayola Crayons as his sole medium.

■ 2012: Kristen Cumings had to be careful not to eat what she was working with. Her media of choice is jelly beans.

■ 2013: Regner found this year’s art-producers while looking online for alternative art.

What she found was the Velveteria Experience. Her initial request was an exhibit of black velvet art. “I wanted everything from high art to the more kitschy,” said Regner.

She added, “I bet you thought there was only black velvet. There’s also yellow velvet. And red, and even blue.”

She added, “But now, people have begun calling me with referrals. One person recommended a person who makes all of his art out of buttons.”

Artists must travel

Her biggest challenge has been convincing artists to appear with their art.

“The majority never traveled with their shows, which is a must for our festival,” said Regner. “They’d grown used to shipping their art, but had never been asked to travel with it.

“I really had to talk some of them into it.”

She added, “Some have become very famous. We got Nathan, the Lego guy, before he did Conan O’Brien’s show. I couldn’t afford him now.”

Lubbock’s festival has, without a doubt, grown in size and popularity.

In 10 years, said Regner, the festival’s budget has grown from approximately $80,000 to $335,000.

She finds these funds via “grants, donations, sponsorships, commissions, booth fees and so on. We need to bring in enough money to pay what we owe for the current festival, and have enough left over to get us to the next one.”

Attendance record

A record was broken last year, with approximately 30,000 attending, she said.

Thirty-five years ago, the first arts festival was free. That would be impossible today, said Regner, who pointed out that admission has been kept low: $3 for the general public, and $2 for children age 11 and younger.

Regner now knows how many booth artists fit in the civic center’s exhibition hall. That’s because she filled it to capacity the past three years, with 150 touring artists and craftsmen.

“Ten years ago, we had 35 booth artists,” she recalled.

Volunteers a plus

Also helping, she said, are 250-plus volunteers, and the artists being able to unload vehicles at the back doors of the civic center.

Regner said, “I always hear similar horror stories about places where artists must carry everything up over hills of gravel.”

“We usually have about 60 percent repeat business,” said Regner.

“That gives us a good base.”

The high number of volunteers allows management to provide “booth sitters” during Friday and Saturday lunch periods, allowing artists to take a break on those days.

There always are some artists who want to be relieved for every meal, which Regner said is not possible.

Plenty for children

Body Works provides jumpers for children outside the civic center. The festival includes everything from a “monster mural” (78 feet by 13 feet) and “giant puzzle” (500 pieces) to 10 Kid Stops with artistic activities.

Lubbock Community Theatre will perform “The Velveteen Rabbit” at 2 p.m. Saturday, April 13, and April 14, in the banquet hall.

The Civic Center Theatre was claimed Friday, April 12, and Saturday, April 13, by co-performances by Lubbock Symphony Orchestra with Ballet Lubbock.

This year’s juror for the Juried Gallery of high end art is Brian Lee Whisenhunt, director of the Museum of the Southwest in Midland.

He chose 35 art works for the gallery by judging slides sent by Regner.

Whisenhunt wanted to see all of the art in person before awarding prizes.

Regner said Whisenhunt would be in Lubbock on Thursday, April 11, to award Best of Show, first place, second place and third place for the Juried Gallery.

Artist’s comments

“End of Season,” a fiber work by Lubbock artist Valerie Komkov Hill, is one of the 35 artworks chosen.

Hill responded, “I only entered the juried gallery the past two years. Before that, I felt somewhat intimidated by many of the more successful artists in Lubbock, even though I knew them as friends and they were always encouraging. I was excited to be picked last year and nervous to enter again, especially in a completely different, and often dismissed, medium (fiber arts).

“I think artists are always prey to inner fears and insecurity. I know friends who were devastated that they didn’t get in (Juried Gallery) last year. Because I have reached an age where I don’t constantly seek approval and validation, I am a little more blase now about the process.

“I feel that I love doing art for its own sake, and for my own soul, at this point in my life. So if I don’t get in the show after this, I might feel a bit disappointed. But I’ll keep making art.”